Labour attacks Lib Dems over £2000-a-year 'Poll Tax Two'
LABOUR policitians went on the attack against their coalition partners today, claiming Liberal Democrat plans for a local income tax to replace council tax would leave an average couple in the city with a bill of over 2000.
Edinburgh Central Labour MSP Sarah Boyack said replacing the council tax with a new income tax would hit ordinary families and risked harming Edinburgh’s booming economy.
She said: “It would be the poll tax all over again.”
A local income tax is one of the Lib Dems’ long-standing policy commitments, which the Scottish National Party also supports.
But Labour is firmly opposed to the idea and has instead proposed reforming the council tax by adding new bands at the top and bottom to catch those in the biggest houses and ease the burden on people in the lowest-value homes.
The differences between Labour and the Lib Dems over local taxation has seen the issue bypassed by the coalition in both the last parliament and the current one. But it will be difficult for them to sideline it again and the issue could become a major stumbling block in any coalition talks following the Scottish Parliament elections in May.
Labour claimed an average couple, consisting of a firefighter and a nurse on the average salary for their jobs, living in a Band D property in Edinburgh, would face a bill for 2030.02 under local income tax, compared with this year’s council tax bill of 1152 - an increase of 878.02.
They claimed the same couple living in East Lothian would face an increase of 934.36; in Midlothian, they would pay an extra 820.02; and in West Lothian their bill would jump by 929.02.
The calculations were based on the assessment in the independent Burt report on local taxation, which said local income tax would have to be set at 6.5p in the pound to raise the same amount of money as the council tax does now.
Ms Boyack said: “I have been campaigning against these tax hikes across my constituency and people are shocked just how much extra they would have to pay under the Liberal and SNP local income tax plans.
“Labour has pledged to reform the council tax to help the less well-off in our community, but what is clear is that the SNP and the Lib Dems will cost Scottish families more, here in Edinburgh and across Scotland.
“Scotland’s hard-working families have a clear choice: economic stability with Labour or paying hundreds more in tax every year with the Liberals and SNP.
“These tax hikes would hit thousands of ordinary families across the city. It would be the poll tax all over again.”
Livingston Labour MSP Bristow Muldoon, who also chairs the party’s Scottish policy forum, said a 6.5p in the pound income tax could deter firms from locating in Scotland and even drive away companies already here.
He said: “Companies would probably have to increase salaries to keep employees and if they are having to pay people more than they would in Manchester or Newcastle, it’s a disincentive to operate in Scotland.”
But a Lib Dem spokeswoman said a local income tax was fair because it was related directly to people’s ability to pay.
She said: “Pensioners across Edinburgh will bear the brunt of Labour’s insistence in keeping the unfair council tax. Around 70 per cent of households would pay the same or less under local income tax, which is a fair tax based on people’s ability to pay.
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